William Hemmerdinger

The exhilaration of seeing a beautifully crafted easel painting, clearly fulfilling the artist’s intentions and simultaneously rewarding our expectations, is a worthwhile experience of immeasurable proportion. For this author, three painterly successes that come to mind most readily as an illustration of this prejudice -- “Les disciples Pierre et Jean courant au Sepulcre le matin de la Resurrection,”  (1898) by Eugene Burnand (Swiss, 1850 – 1921); “Moonlight” (1905) by Julian Alden Weir (American, 1852 – 1919) and “The Red Studio” (1911) by Henri Matisse (French, 1869 - 1954).

I must add, each of these sterling examples could be interchangeably replaced by “Resting”  (1921) by Antonio Mancini, (Italian, 1852- 1930) or “Ocean Park #111”  (1978) by Richard Diebenkorn  (American, 1922 – 1993).

Although my preceding list of examples is short, my longer list is occupied by a pantheon of all-time great painters of canvas and panel. Reiner Sybrand Bakels (Dutch, 1873 – 1956), Walter Kuhlman, (American, 1918 – 2009), Matsumi Kanemitsu (Japanese-American, 1922 – 1992), Karl Benjamin, (American, born 1925) to name a few of the less obvious. Each of these artists painted at least one knock-your-socks-off painting, yet, they are not the household brand names. These painters brought something so incredibly fresh to a painted surface that the painting can spark awe. When their internal, individual insight is played out before us, like a fugue, we appreciate and understand an object undeniably grand.
In September 2010, in the not-so-sleepy burgh of the Downtown Arts Colony of Pomona, California, a painting of very high achievement was on exhibit at Pedersen Projects. Entitled Ineluctable, the work was painted by Lisa Adams, (American, contemporary). The small painting measuring roughly 24” x 20” will join my directory listing of well-made paintings.

Adams’s Ineluctable was included in the handsome exhibition Prelude To An Apocalypse: Landscape in An Era of Diminished Expectations – a show which also presented admirable work by Amir H. Fallah, Wendell Gladstone, and Greg Rose. “Ineluctable” means inescapable (possibly a reference to the exhibition title). The unifying characteristic of the show seemed to be an imagined landscape set out in eupeptic color.

A speechwriter would tell us that successful orators draw from a body of principles already possessing an internal order. The manner of delivery varies while building on a core idea. Basically, I am reading Ineluctable as an extension of what Hans Hofmann (German – American, 1880 – 1966) envisioned and professed although he may or may not have achieved it, while other structural technicians, like Fritz Bultman (American, 1919 – 1985) came close. At the risk of writing an opaque description: the painting is comprised of not only a predictable visual tension of side to side relationships, but, also a dynamic forward-backward transmission from zones perceived to exist before the picture plane, then progresses into deep zones perceptibly behind it.  A cast of characters -- a vine, a spot of spray paint, a potted succulent, and blocks of colors of differing hue and value -- perform layering best described as allegorical veneers. The forms interrelate like multiple choral lines variously achieving individual representation but climaxing as a unified expressive whole.

Despite the exhibition title, the show was thoughtfully curated and worthy of attention. (I have difficulty with the title of the show -- Prelude To An Apocalypse: Landscape in An Era of Diminished Expectations. In painting, and within much of the art and design community, the apocalypse has already occurred.) Ineluctable is, doubtless, the bright spot, and with it, Adams has announced her eminence.

William Hemmerdinger is a Los Angeles artist and critic. His artworks are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Barbara Hepworth Museum, St. Ives, England; Otto Galerie, Berlin, Germany and many others. He is the author of numerous articles and catalogs. Hemmerdinger earned an MFA and Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University and teaches at Boston Architectural College.